1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program distribution system and a recording and reproduction device that can record, for reproduction in real time, video data of program contents coming from a broadcast station by cable or by radio, and also can acquire data of program contents over a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Broadcast programs have been distributed by radio waves from broadcast stations and by cable television systems, and recently the program distribution over a network starts taking over such previous program distribution. This is due to the environment established for distributing data of program contents from a content server in a broadcast station or others through downloading or streaming over a network such as the Internet. The program distribution is also being improved in quality with the commencement of the digital broadcasting (terrestrial broadcasting) service, and with various types of improvements in the network environment, i.e., improvements of transmission speed, processing speed of reception devices, and display capability (resolution and response speed) of display devices.
There is a known technology for swiftly receiving, over a network, higher-quality version of data, i.e., stream data of high definition with a high frame rate. As an example, refer to Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2004-104416).
For broadcasting by radio waves and by cable television systems, there is also a known technology for acquiring higher-quality video data utilizing a repeat of a program. As an example, refer to Patent Document 2 (JP-A-2001-275072).